Ring Model
As a side effect of being empathic, Cresaeans use their feelings of intimacy or distance between each other as their primary means of differentiating among people in discourse. Cresaeans see their relationships as a sort of network, centered at the self. The 3* people closest to you, that you spend the most time with and care the most about, form the first ring around you. (Think Bohr's model of an atom, with the nucleus being yourself and your groups of friends the electron levels.)
If Cresaeans followed typical Western social patterns (which they only approximately do), a child's aejhel (that is, the closest ring) would consist of parents and a sibling or a very close playmate — even an imaginary friend could count here, if the child really believed in its existence to the point that it became a real entity in the child's mind. For an adult, the aejhel would most likely shift to include a significant other and a best friend or two.
Next is a ring of 5* people — these would be your closest friends, who you could share most things with. After that is a ring of 12* — these are friends that you'd hang out with regularly and feel comfortable with. The last two rings have much less structure in the Cresaeans' mind, being reserved for acquaintances and everyone else.
* These numbers are canonical and not necessarily accurate on an individual basis.
Conjugations
Primary Rings
Mutually Beneficial Relationships
| Name | Description | Conjugation | Pronoun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| self | –ni | en'i | ||
| aejhel | beloveds, closest friends | –ejh | ejh | |
| chishél | close friends | –ishe | él# | |
| sadhel | good friends | –adhe | el# | |
| geithe | acquaintances | –eith | e# | |
| nimordh | strangers | –ordh | o# | stranger, i.e. don't know them at all |
| aerdhil | others | –aerdhi | ae# | when it doesn't matter, the person is unspecified, or is hypothetical |
Mutually Harmful Relationships
| Name | Description | Conjugation | Pronoun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| self | –i | ai | ||
| ghagel | greatest enemies | –gha | gel | |
| nache | very mean people | –ach | e# | |
| chi'nache | mean people | –ich | e# | |
| majel | annoyances | –aj | el# | |
| kivorn | strangers | –orn | o# |
Neutral Relationships
| Name | Description | Conjugation | Pronoun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| self | –naro | naroln | ||
| aiye | stranger, relatively intimate | –aiye | e# | |
| esóten | stranger, relatively formal | –sóte | ó# |
The names in the leftmost column describe the ring itself, not a person in them. That is, my best friend is in my aejhel, she is not the aejhel itself. If I want to use a pronoun to name a specific person in one of my rings, I can tack on a "numbered suffix" to the end of the ring's name. –sa is the #1 ending, –da is #2, etc. So aejhelsa refers to the first person in my aejhel that I've mentioned, aejhelda to the second, etc.
These ring-name–plus–number-suffix pronouns are called "full" pronouns. The pronouns listed in the tables above are shorter but more ambiguous; they are called "common" pronouns. As their name implies, these ambiguous pronouns are the norm in everyday speech. Thus, chishélsa is equivalent to the more common élsa, nimordhsa to osa, etc.
These number-suffix–derived pronouns only temporarily refer to a specific person. The number chosen start with #1 for the first person mentioned, and increases as each additional person from the same ring is singled out for discussion. Once the conversation is over, these pronouns no longer refer to anything, because they exist only in context.
Quick Conjugation Lookup Table
| Name | Conj. | Pronoun | Name | Conj. | Pronoun | Name | Conj. | Pronoun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| –(e)ni | en'i | –i | ai | –naro | naroln | |||
| aejhel | –ejh | ejh | ghagel | –(a)gha | gel | aiye | –aiye | e# |
| chishél | –ishe | él# | nache | –ach | e# | |||
| sadhel | –adhe | el# | chi'nache | –ich | e# | |||
| geithe | –eith | e# | majel | –aj | el# | esóten | –sóte | ó# |
| nimordh | –ordh | o# | kivorn | –orn | o# | |||
| aerdhil | –aerdhi | ae# |
Removed Relations
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| dojhel | aejhel's aejhel | |
| chijhik | chishé's aejhel | |
| sajhen | sadhel's aejhel | |
| gorjhith | nimordh's aejhel | |
| cresón | nimordh's aejhel | commonly translated as foreigner |
Adding Gender Information
Asha'illens believe your relationship to a person is more important than the gender of that person. Given that, gender information is considered optional at best, superfluous at worst. However, if you really want to specify something's biological gender via a verbal conjugation, these endings (and their related pronouns) do exist. They are more often used for animals than for people.| Gender | Conjugation | Pronoun |
|---|---|---|
| male | –ar | ar |
| female | –a | a |
| unknown | –aer | aer |
| none | –ec | ec |
By deliberately using only the non-empath pronouns and conjugations with a subject that would normally be expected to take the empath ones, the speaker is either insulting that person or signalling that there is something wrong with him. Mental patients and sociopaths typically evoke such usage. Using both types of pronouns on the same verb, on the other hand, is used for clarification and implies nothing of the person's mental derangement.
Plurals
To form the equivalent of we, pluralize the conjugation for the nearest ring that includes all of the people in question. For example, say there is a group of four people: two are close siblings, one is an old friend, and one the rest only met today. From one of the sibling's perspectives, there are many ways to say we go (the base verb is mov). Movejhim includes only the two siblings. Movishem includes the siblings and their close friend, and moveithem includes everyone.
Note that pluralizing the self's ring — for example, saying movnim — only works with a person whom you consider an extension of yourself. In other words, movnim would only be used by a married couple or similar.
